Monday, May 4, 2009

Papa is on a break from the drips. He had it scheduled so he could have his dinner in peace, but unfortunately there is no peace in his mind. The nurse just checked his BP and Blood Sugar. Sugar was high. Now, my view is (and this is as per my talks with the doctor) that while administering chemo, it is passed into the vein along with saline and glucose and a steroid is given along with administering chemo. It’s because of this that the blood sugar level is hiked.

Also, prior to the start of the chemo, papa’s blood sugar was at 135, which is normal.

But now that it’s high, he is super hyper and refuses to get the drips back on. The doctors are there and are trying to calm him down. I will be calling again in a few minutes. The doctors have even told him that if it gets too high, they will give him an insulin shot to temporarily bring down the blood sugar.

While I was there, I had told the nurses that whether it’s BP, temperature or sugar, whatever it is they are checking - when my father asks, they have to give him a standard reply - which is ‘It’s normal’. That seemed to be working just fine. The times when it was high, the nurse still told him his BP is normal and then went outside and called the doctor. But it seems like there is some new nurse for this shift and papa is now all worked up.